Posted May 9th 2008 9:00PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, George Lucas, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and Clips
The trailer for
Star Wars: The Clone Wars has hit the net via
Yahoo! Movies. Those who caught the broadcast of it on the 8th were lucky, as the Yahoo trailer is in less than ideal condition: just when things started to get good, the sound cut out on me! (So take my opinion with a grain of salt.) While I got all nostalgic and excited upon hearing Obi Wan's Theme (one of John Williams compositions, I think), the rest didn't fill me with much confidence. It looks less like a trailer for a movie trailer than one for a video game -- and not because of the animation, but because it mostly is made up of "Look, how
cool!" shots. But, like I said, the sound died when the plot started to pick up, so I will re-watch it when the glitches clear up and form a new opinion. If it worked for you, please tell me if I'm wrong -- and if it
is way better than a video game trailer.
The Clone Wars hits theatres August 15th. I wonder if
Star Wars fans are already lining up?
Posted May 9th 2008 3:32PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting
First there was Josh Hartnett as
a drifter. Then came Demi Moore as a
captive courtesan, while Woody Harrelson sign on to be a bartender (once again) and Shun Sugata grabbed an uncle role. Now, we've got a bad guy.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that the big bad of
Bunraku will be played by
Hellboy Ron Perlman, just days
after he signed on for
The Job.
Guy Moshe's film will be set in a
Sin City sort of hyperstylized universe, and
as Jessica originally shared, it's got a whole bunch of weird artistic genres that it's pulling from -- puppets, video games, origami, comic books, and even German expressionism. Hartnett's Drifter teams up with a samurai played by Japanese actor
Gackt, and they go after Perlman's Eastern European gang lord. I ... have absolutely no idea what to expect from this. The story is simple enough, but I can't imagine how origami, puppets, and other mish-mashed styles will fit into this martial arts story. Oh yeah, and if that wasn't enough, Hartnett originally compared it to Alfred Hitchcock's
Rope.
Will we really be getting a film that's one long take of CGI, puppets, martial arts, and fights between good guys and bad guys? It sounds more like one of those weird dreams that wakes you up and wonder what your dream mind was thinking.
Posted May 9th 2008 2:32PM by Eugene Novikov
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Deals
I'm about to take off for a week-long vacation, but I'll leave you with this:
James McTeigue, whose
V for Vendetta was wonderful, angry and brave, has signed on to direct a sci-fi thriller that sounds a bit like a second
X-Files sequel -- which may be why I think it sounds so cool.
Revelations, from a script by
John Salvati (the forthcoming Andrew Niccol/Al Pacino
Dali biopic), will involve a female journalist who investigates a series of bizarre murders and discovers that the dead were all being treated by the head of an organization that studies alien abductions.
V for Vendetta, as well as McTeigue's follow-up
Ninja Assassin, due next year, were produced by the Wachowski Brothers. In fact,
V was known more as a Wachowski Brothers film than a McTeigue film -- sort of the way
Judd Apatow stole all the credit for
Superbad from
Greg Mottola. It doesn't
sound like the Wachowskis will have a hand in this one, which might let the talented McTeigue spread his wings a bit.
V showed fantastic promise; smart filmmakers who strive to make great genre films are hard to come by.
What we need is another good alien invasion TV show. Shame that no one wanted to watch the
last one...
Posted May 9th 2008 12:32PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Universal, Newsstand, Games and Game Movies
This news has the gaming world all a-flutter.
Variety announced today that
Gore Verbinski is taking the director's chair for the big screen adaptation of
Bioshock. Universal has the rights to the video game adaptation, which Verbinski will direct and produce. John Logan will write the screenplay, and Verbinski plans to jump into pre-production as soon as it is finished and approved.
Bioshock was a hugely successful game, winning numerous awards and making a movie inevitable. And Take-Two Interactive, Bioshock's publisher, is so determined to see it onscreen that they structured the deal to make
Halo like failure impossible.
Continue reading Gore Verbinski to Direct 'Bioshock'
Posted May 9th 2008 10:02AM by Eugene Novikov
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Scripts
There's a really neat-sounding small-scale sci-fi project in development at Overture Films called
Pandorum. But for the news that
Paul W.S. Anderson is involved, I'd be really excited.
Pandorum will be about two spaceship crewmen who wake up on their ship with no idea who they are or what they're supposed to be doing. Soon, they "make a discovery that threatens the survival of mankind."
Anderson didn't write and won't be directing the film -- those tasks both fall to relative unknowns -- but he is reteaming with his
Resident Evil cohorts to produce it. He's not exactly on my must list these days, since the
Resident Evil franchise has pretty much died under his supervision and
AvP isn't exactly a venerable addition to the list of ongoing big-name series.
Pandorum's premise
sounds cool, but then so did
Event Horizon's until you actually learned what was going on. In any case,
Dennis Quaid and
Ben Foster (in a possible rare non-psychopathic role?) have signed on to star as our heroes, which is good news. I guess the big question is what exactly the two of them "discover" on that spaceship.
Pandorum is supposed to start production in August in Berlin, according to the
Variety piece; no word on a release date. Sci-fi fans, make a note of it.
Posted May 9th 2008 9:32AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Classics, Drama, Horror, Independent, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Deals, Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand
It sounds like a prank. We would all like it to be one. But it seems to be legit.
The story comes from Screen Daily, who reports that S. Darko is being shopped around, with Fox already picking up the North American distribution rights. Touted as the sequel to the 2001 cult hit, the story picks up seven years after Donnie Darko left off. The youngest Darko, Samantha, is now 18 and abandoning her commitment to Sparkle Motion. She heads to Las Vegas with her best friend Corey, but the two are plagued with bizarre visions. I imagine they will involve a rabbit.
Richard Kelly, the original director, is in no way involved. Chris Fincher Fisher* will direct instead. Daveigh Chase, who played Samantha in the original, will reprise her role. It looks like she is the only one. The movie also stars Ed Westwick, Briana Evigan, and Justin Chatwin.
As to the big looming question of why, oh God, why, Simon Crowe of UK sales company Velvet Octopus says they're thinking of the children. "I think there is a new generation of cinema-goers who will be very excited to see this film."
Which generation came of age between 2001 and 2008? Why haven't they rented Donnie Darko? I am afraid these are questions to which Crowe has no answers. But he did quip, "Donnie's not in [the new film] but there are meteorites and rabbits."
Nothing is safe from the all mighty dollar, my friends. Nothing. Even when there is a pretty conclusive ending, there can always be a sequel. I'll leave you to think about that as I go pen my script for No Country for Old Men 2.
[via Empire]
*Very kind thanks to astute reader toad_stone for pointing out our egregious misspelling of director Chris Fisher's last name. Correction made, with our apologies. - Ed.
Posted May 8th 2008 9:02PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
He's one of pop culture's most beloved outer space adventurers, but we sure haven't seen a lot of good ol'
Buck Rogers lately. (Then again, Flash Gordon's
most recent incarnation was pretty awful, so maybe that's a good thing.) Born in 1928 from the pen of Mr. Philip Nowlan, Buck Rogers was a pilot / astronaut who fell into a five-century coma, only to awaken to find the world all futurized and stuff: robots, laser guns, spaceships, interstellar wars, all that jazz.
On screens of various size, the character has appeared in a 12-part
1939 serial from Universal Pictures, a short-lived 1950
television series, and (of course) a 1979
movie /
TV program that starred
Gil Gerard and (
sigh)
Erin Gray. So the big guy is heading back to the cinemas? Yep. According to
IGN Movies, it's Avi Lerner's
Millennium Films that will resurrect the Buck Rogers character for a whole new generation of sci-fi nerdlings. (I guess Millennium is using their
Rambo money on this project.)
But it gets even geekier! Apparently author / artist / filmmaker
Frank Miller will be the one in the director's chair! IGN says that the $40 million
Buck Rogers project will be Miller's next gig once he's all finished with
The Spirit. The screenplay comes from genre veteran
Flint Dille, but there's one thing that gives me a little pause, and it's this quote specifically: "The cheapness of the low-budget effects will be a running joke in the movie, which will retain the campiness of the 1980s TV series
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century starring Gil Gerard." Whoa, really?
That's the direction you want to go in, fellas? Maybe I'm just an old-school Kaelist, but I think BAD things happen when you try to force "campiness." A sense of humor is fine, but let's not make a cheap joke out of good ol' Buck Rogers.
Posted May 8th 2008 3:32PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
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There's all sorts of madness going on at Marvel right now in the wake of
Iron Man's ridiculous opening weekend. Marvel's Kevin Feige was promoted to God and now it's time to start looking toward the future. While we await the release of Marvel's second self-financed flick (
The Incredible Hulk) later this summer,
The Hollywood Reporter tells us
Matthew Vaughn is no longer directing
Thor (currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on June 4, 2010, not July 4 as previously reported -- unless
HR made a typo). According to
HR, Vaughn's holding deal expired. In the meantime, Marvel is waiting for a script polish from writer Mark Protosevich (
I Am Legend).
On what we should expect from
Thor, Feige says, "It's very much a Marvel superhero story but against the backdrop of nothing you've seen before. " He then described the flick as a "period fantasy in the vein of
The Lord of the Rings." Sounds pretty cool to me. Who do you think they should get to direct
Thor? Heck, why not throw
Peter Jackson on it -- I'm sure fans would freak over that one.
Additionally, and this is just a rumor right now,
HR also claims that Hulk might be featured in
Iron Man 2 (due out April 30, 2010). They don't go any further than that except to say we should expect cross-referencing in all these films now that Marvel has control over the movies its characters are in. However, one thing's NOT for sure right now -- and that's Robert Downey Jr.'s participation in the
Iron Man sequel. He's signed on, but
HR says Marvel may have to "sweeten the pot to reward the movie's star." Oh, they'll sweeten ... or else millions of fans will look to bring on a world of hurt.
Posted May 8th 2008 2:30PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, RumorMonger, Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
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Things seem to be getting a tad confusing over on the
Transformers 2 front. As of now, Michael Bay and his team plan to begin production in early June ... IF there isn't an actor's strike. (I know, another strike -- we're sick of 'em too.) Regardless of what might happen, they still need to cast this monster -- and that's where all this he said/she said is coming into play. Not long ago,
Jonah Hill was rumored to be in negotiations for a part opposite Shia LaBeouf, but that's
no longer happening. Now, if Michael Bay is to be believed, Australian actress Teresa Palmer is no longer in the film and was never considered in the first place. This is odd, because we were under the assumption that Moviehole (who
first reported the casting) actually spoke to Palmer and SHE confirmed her own involvement.
Over on
his personal blog, however, Bay denies everything. In a very brief statement, he says: "No we have stopped negotiating with Jonah, and Teresa Palmer was not considered for a role." Um, okay. If you say so. To further complicate the situation,
IGN now reports that another Aussie actress,
Isabel Lucas, has been cast in the role of Alice in
Transformers 2. This bit of news comes via her management agency, Meissner Management, who list the actress as having that role. She's relatively new to the block, and will have parts in the upcoming vampire flick
Daybreakers, as well as the HBO miniseries
The Pacific.
No official word on Palmer or Lucas, so we'll have to wait and see if Michael Bay has anything to say about these latest rumors. Cute girl, though, I'll give her that.
Posted May 7th 2008 3:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Movie Marketing, Trailers and Clips
Cinematical has just received this exclusive, action-filled clip from Tarsem Singh's
The Fall. The film is set in a Los Angeles hospital in 1915, where stuntman Roy Walker (Lee Pace) is recovering from a stunt-gone-wrong and the fact that his girlfriend dumped him for the film's leading man. Set on ending his life, he befriends the young Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) in order to persuade her to nab him the morphine he needs for his suicide. He begins to tell her amazing stories, full of people from his life and the hospital, to get her anxious for more, and to make her do his bidding.
The clip shares a scene from one of those stories, and is full of horses, dusty action, the freeing of slaves, and even some first-sight romance. This is definitely looking to be a rare gem -- a great story with a myriad of beautiful scenes. The film goes into limited release this Friday.
Posted May 7th 2008 1:32PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, RumorMonger, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, George Lucas, Remakes and Sequels
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Now that
George Lucas and his crew are preparing to launch the first big-screen
Star Wars flick in all CGI, some folks are wondering whether that means he'd be down to eventually continue the saga where
Return of the Jedi left off -- especially since it wouldn't be hard to bring back original actors like Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher to do the voice work. Fans, of course, would publicly bash such a move ... even if they'd secretly been wishing for the return of Luke, Leia and Han for years. So, would Lucas do it? Is he considering it?
In a new interview with the
Los Angeles Times, the Sith King himself claims there will be no such film from him. Lucas says, "There really isn't any story to tell there. It's been covered in the books and video games and comic books, which are things I think are incredibly creative but that I don't really have anything to do with other than being the person who built the sandbox they're playing in." He continues, "I get asked all the time, 'What happens after "Return of the Jedi"?,' and there really is no answer for that. The movies were the story of Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker, and when Luke saves the galaxy and redeems his father, that's where that story ends."
Star Wars: The Clone Wars arrives in theaters on August 15, then heads to Cartoon Network and TNT for a weekly series.
Would you rather see a CGI Star Wars flick that takes place during The Clone Wars or after
Return of the Jedi?
Posted May 7th 2008 11:32AM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Paramount, Dreamworks, Remakes and Sequels
I can't be the only one who's just a little relieved that
Jonah Hill has dropped out of negotiations to star in
Transformers 2. Hill is riding high on the comedy wave, and while a big-budget summer flick is always a career booster, it's not like
Michael Bay is known for his comedy.
According to Entertainment Weekly, "negotiations between Jonah Hill and Dreamworks have broken down, and the
Superbad star is no longer expected play a sidekick to Shia LaBeouf in the upcoming sequel from director Michael Bay."
Bay and company are expected to start production on
Transformers 2 this summer at
the University of Pennsylvania, which fit with early reports that Hill would be playing Sam Witwicky's (LaBeouf) college roommate. Now that Hill is out of the picture, maybe a little co-ed co-habitation could be in his future since
Teresa Palmer signed for an unnamed role last week.
There were no details about why Hill chose not to sign on the dotted line, but I'm sure a lot of fans are glad that he did. Unfortunately it's not all good news coming from Hill's people; instead of starring in
Transformers 2, he has agreed to appear in the
follow-up to
A Night at the Museum -- so now I don't know what to think. As crappy as
Transformers 2 might turn out to be (and there is a good chance it could be pretty darn crappy), it would definitely be a step up from
A Night at the Museum 2. Or maybe not.
What do you think? Should Jonah stick to the simple comedies without all the big-budgeted effects?
Posted May 7th 2008 7:45AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Warner Brothers, George Lucas, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Posters
Isn't it pretty? I'm still alarmed by the squareness of Obi-Wan's beard though, even the Clone Trooper helmets have more softness. The poster has been released to herald the debut of the trailer, which will air May 8th simultaneously on Cartoon Network, TNT, TBS, CNN and Boomerang. It will air at 7:58 in all U.S. time zones. According to
the official Star Wars site (where the poster can be purchased and press release can be found), Amidala will be on the front lines alongside Anakin and Obi Wan, and we'll also be introduced to Anakin's Padawan, Ahsoka. Does it surprise anyone else they let him have a Padawan? Way to go, Jedi Academy.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars comes to the big screen on August 15th, with the premiere of Cartoon Network's weekly series debuting sometime after. With all the big summer movies this year, it's really hard to remember this is coming out too. What a geeky year.
Posted May 6th 2008 6:32PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Comedy, Independent, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Noir
Those lovable
Twitch boys love their foreign genre fare a whole lot, but when they get
THIS enthusiastic about an upcoming project, that's usually enough to get me salivating like a movie-nerd version of Pavlov's dogs. What's the movie that has the
Twitch boys extra-twitchy today? It looks to be a VERY enticing flick called
Iron Sky, which is a Finnish sci-fi comedy noir (I think) about the Nazis who colonized the moon in 1945 and are due for a return to Earth in 2018.
Yeah, feel free to read that description a second time -- and then
click here to visit
Twitch and enjoy the very cool promotional teaser for the flick. I know nothing about the movie aside from Todd Brown's basic description and what's offered in the promo clip -- but hot damn I sure hope this movie ends up at one of the genre festivals I'm covering later this year. This is a seriously impressive little mini-movie, from the noirish visual style and the haunting song to the sci-fi slickness and the (very amusing) final shot of the statue... If the movie's only
half as cool as
Twitch hopes it will be, it will still be pretty damn neat. (For more info, bookmark
Twitchfilm and then check out the official
Iron Sky website.)
Posted May 6th 2008 6:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Warner Brothers, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Trailers and Clips
A new month, a new video from the set of
Watchmen! Zack Snyder gave this one to JoBlo for posting, and they have kindly provided an embed code so you could watch it without leaving the comfy confines of
Cinematical.
This video has me seriously geeking out. It is a guided tour from costume designer Michael Wilkinson, who happily explains everything from police uniforms to the iconic outfits our heroes will be sporting. The hero costumes should help quell some of the "Oxymandias isn't gold enough!" cries that were going around, because the sketches look perfect. Nothing like the first character still.
As you may remember, I'm a costume nerd, and I can spend hours studying their construction. I would give anything to be a research gopher for someone like Wilkinson; I would live out my days happily compiling books of photos and fabric scraps. (And speaking of the designer, one of my biggest disappointments was not getting to meet him last year at ComicCon. I was under strict orders to show him the Queen Gorgo dress, and I missed him by ten minutes. Regrets!)
I am loving that first shot of what
has to be Sally Jupiter -- her dress! Her hair! She's perfect. May this movie be half as good as it
looks.
Watchmen hits theatres March 6th, 2009.
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-and-alexandria-(catinca-untaru)-_thumbnail.jpg "Roy Walker (Lee Pace) and Alexandria (Catinca Untaru)")
-and-darwin-(leo-bill)_thumbnail.jpg "Otto Benga (Marcus Wesley) and Darwin (Leo Bill)")
_thumbnail.jpg "Governor Odious (Daniel Caltigarone)")
-_thumbnail.jpg "Alexandria (Catinca Untaru(")
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